Isileth's Story: The Tavern
by Rel Fexive
Summary: Between missions, Isileth and Sera take a well-earned break.


Between missions, Isileth and Sera take a well-earned break.

* * *

The Herald's Rest was busy, as it often was after long weeks away in distant corners of Thedas. Time spent in strange places, facing aggressive foes and equally aggressive wildlife, always made the Inquisition's people glad to return to their home and relax. The tavern, inevitably, became the focus of their relaxation – if drinking, singing and occasionally brawling could be considered relaxing.

Isileth smiled to see Lace Harding leading the loud sing-a-long to Maryden's latest song, albeit one that tended to use different and fairly obscene alternative lyrics. The first in and the last out, the dwarf always earned the right to make some minor musical modifications in the Inquisitor's book, even if few of them ever actually rhymed.

Sat beside her at the secluded table they had managed to find, Sera was laughing, of course. Isileth would not have put it past her to suggest some alterations to Lace herself, which went part of the way to explaining the laughing and the redness of her face. Ale, though, played a larger part, which was fair enough as Isileth could feel it having much the same effect on her.

She would also have been the first to admit that "secluded" barely covered it; it was on the second floor, just next to Sera's room, and any seclusion it got was mainly down to how drunk everyone else was.

Turning to face Isileth again, Sera continued her story.

"So then," she said, making expansive gestures to demonstrate, "she went down BAM! and then it was get the goodies time!"

"I know," Isileth said patiently for the third time, "I _was_ there you know."

"Hah! It's you I was talking about!" Sera giggled raucously. "Went down!" The elf all but rolled off her chair with laughing. Isileth grabbed her arm to keep her upright but it took two goes before she pulled Sera back upright. The laughing was infectious, as it turned out, so it was some time before Isileth could get her breath back to speak.

"So," she began, waving her mug a little vaguely, "what is it with you, anyway?" Sera just frowned at her with blurry eyes. " _Dragons_ ," Isileth said. "You and dragons. What's the reason you're so big on them? I mean, I get Bull, they're like, as close to sacred as qunari get."

"You've been dying to ask this one, yeah?" Sera smiled slyly. "Especially after the Vinsomer." They both smirked at that particular memory and Isileth nodded. "It's sort of complicated," Sera told her, "like, there's layers. Petticoats. Like them. With legs underneath." She glanced at Isileth's legs appreciatively.

"So..." Isileth prompted, drawing her lover's attention back to the original subject. "It's complicated?"

"Well, see, dragons, the big flying ones, they're the biggest, scariest things ever, yeah?" Sera's hands made a shape like a flying bird, thumbs together and fingers flapping. "They're the toughest things anyone knows, they've got fire or ice or lighting and they own any place they like. And they're all female, the big ones." She giggled. "Big, powerful lizard ladies that everyone is scared of. Great, right? No one messes with them. They are... large and in charge!" They both had a good laugh at that.

"Except..." Sera continued and held up a finger as if to make a point... and then wiggled it a little suggestively and grinned. "Right, so, who challenges dragons? Only nutters... or the only other big sexy woman everyone everywhere is scared of!" She pointed her finger at Isileth. "Woof! Nothing hotter than that!" The elf took a swig of ale and went on. "But then, I was thinking, yeah? After we fought that first one together." Sera frowned in concentration. "It's a big, scary monster that does what it wants and kills anyone who disagrees, and we're just people, little things next to that monster, but together we can take it down and steal its stuff. Teach a lesson to the other big monsters, keep 'em in their place."

"So... they're big, tough and awesome women no one messes with..." Isileth said in summary, "hot like your girlfriend... _and_ they represent the Jenny versus nobles conflict?" She considered for a moment. "Okay, I can see that's complicated. And it explains your... attitude." Isileth tried to wiggle her eyebrows suggestively, but she was not entirely sure it really worked. Sera seemed to like it, though, to judge by her cheeky grin.

Another sip of ale later, and Sera spoke first.

"Did you really have a lover that called you Handles?" she asked loudly in a pause in the background singing. Sadly, the pause meant her voice carried further than Isileth would have liked. By the innocent look on Sera's face over her mug, Isileth knew it had been intentional. Fortunately, she had had enough ale herself that it did not worry her too much.

 _I knew I shouldn't have told her that_. Isileth mentally shrugged and pondered her response.

"Yes," the Inquisitor and Herald Of Andraste finally admitted with a glum expression, "I really did. He thought he was being really funny, and he was, at the time..." She grimaced. "Right up to the point that he used it in front of the entire company. Then it wasn't funny any more. He didn't stick around long after that." Isileth frowned. "Might've been the arrow wounds he needed treating. Couldn't really say."

"Yeah!" Sera smirked. "That always teaches 'em to-" She suddenly broke off, wide-eyed, as her brain caught up with what she had just heard.

"Another one called me that too," Isileth went on, seemingly oblivious to Sera's reaction but actually resisting the urge to laugh herself. "She thought she was being so original, but no obviously not so that didn't end well either..." Sera seemed to be choking on something so Isileth 'noticed' her predicament. "Is something wrong?" she asked as innocently as she could manage – Sera had earned a little payback. "Are you okay?"

"You said..." The elf seemed to be struggling to get her words out. " _He?_ " Her voice had risen to a squeak that was somewhere between shocked and mortified.

"That's right," Isileth said calmly, though she was beginning to worry that this had not been quite the right time for such a revelation. "I, uh, sometimes I am attracted to different sorts of people, and, well, some of them have been men." She made a half-shrug. "It's not really _that_ big a deal." She looked at Sera, concern on her face. "That's... not a problem, is it?"

Sera just stared for a moment and then broke down in that giggling snort that was definitely on the adorable side of annoying, whatever anyone else said.

"So sometimes you..." Sera gasped out, "sometimes you just want a..." She was practically holding her sides in pain with tears running from her eyes as she laughed.

 _Not sure if this is a good reaction or not_.

"It's fine, really," Sera finally said once she had gotten control back. "Unexpected, yeah? But okay." She blinked as if something had occurred to her. "Is that why you always go and see Cullen?" She grinned naughtily. "Thinking of getting some Cully-Wully were you?"

"What?!" Isileth said as indignantly as she could manage. "No! He's just a friend, a colleague!"

"I bet you thought about it though!"

"No!" Isileth told her. "I absolutely-" _definitely did at one point_ "-did not!"

"And what about the Bull, yeah?" Sera smirked lewdly. "Can you even imagine what _that_ would be like?" The way she said it made it very clear exactly what she was talking about.

Isileth was on the verge of spluttering out something ill-advised when Sera leaned forward and slipped a hand onto her thigh.

"Got you, Honey Tongue," she murmured with a little smile. Isileth fought the urge to either sulk or strangle her lover, and instead took and released a deep breath. Sera's smile got a little wider as she appreciated the effect that intake of air had on some of her Inquisitor's salient features.

"Got you, too," Isileth told Sera in a desperate attempt to claw something resembling a win back from her. "Kind of."

"Call it a draw, then," Sera nodded. "This time!" She paused for a moment. "So... have you really... been with... you know."

"Yes," Isileth said quietly. "But it's you and me, now, against the world, remember? It's no different if it had always been women. I guess I sort of prefer women, over men, anyway, mostly." She saw Sera smirk. "Not like that!"

"Yeah, like that!" Sera snickered. "But we've got that in common at least, yeah? Liking the women best?"

"Yes, but... it's okay, isn't it?" Isileth searched Sera's face for any sign it really was a problem.

"'Course it is!" Sera said, taking Isileth's hands in her own delicate ones, a serious expression on her face. "Told you, I don't share, and that includes past people too. It's just you and me here, yeah? No one else." Isileth felt suddenly relieved and in the wake of the sudden absence of tension could not stop herself from laughing, which naturally Sera was only too happy to join in with.

"I could've picked a better moment," Isileth said with a wry smile, shaking her head.

"Could've been worse," Sera snorted, "how about if-"

"Ladies!" The voice was as big as the person it issued from. The laughter and the talking had distracted them enough that his usually highly noticeable approach had gone unheeded. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

Isileth and Sera just looked up at the Iron Bull, standing there expectantly with a wide smile on his face, before breaking down in uncontrollable laughter.

Bull's smile slowly drooped as his boss and her lover sniggered like naughty novices. Eventually he just left them to it.


End file.
